The driver of the yellow cab who rammed into two women on a city sidewalk had her taxi license suspended March 17, officials from the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) said. The harrowing crash was caught on video, showing the runaway cab barreling into the pedestrians, sending both of them to the hospital. The cabbie – 25-year-old Mahamuda Akter – then smashed through a Lower East Side bodega at around 2:45pm.
Millicent Faber (age 24), who was hurled onto the sidewalk, said the crash fractured both of her legs. Her 25-year-old friend, who was launched down the basement stairs of a corner deli, suffered a broken back and a concussion. The cause of the crash remains under investigation; Akter had not been charged, as of mid-March.
A passenger who took the same taxi hours before the crash told The New York Post that Akter was driving erratically even then, turning his morning ride from Battery Park to the East Village into a 30-minute rollercoaster.
“I’ve never been that unsafe in a taxi, it was crazy,” said Tom, a 29-year-old Manhattan resident who asked not to be identified by his full name. To back up his story, he provided photos taken during his “hellish” ride showing the cab’s medallion and license plate number. He also said he recognized his driver.
Tom claims the driver took a wrong turn into the Hugh Carey Tunnel, and when he told her what she’d done, she just stopped. “I’m like, you can’t stop here, you just got to go through now, you’ve committed, it’s one way,” he said.
In the tunnel, Tom says the driver looked down at her phone and brushed against the cones that separate traffic, before cutting across three lanes as they exited. Once they reached the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Tom said he asked to get off at exits along the way to find a different ride, but the cabbie kept going, driving onto the Manhattan Bridge while again looking down at her phone for directions.
Akter had been approved for a TLC license in October and had no violations leading up to the crash. A DMV official also said there were no infractions tied to the driver.
Source: AOL
